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They have their purpose, just like everything else. Personally, I have no use for them. Although, those quarter squats I had to do for that gym comp where I entered as Ed Coan overloaded my posterior chain like nothing else. I've never been that sore from squatting in my life.

When I started lifting about a year ago I started with quarter squats, because that was how I was always instructed and that's what everyone else was doing. Then months later I thought maybe I should be at least doing the full ROM, and started doing ATG squats at a lesser weight. Probably a bad idea at the time, because as soon as I started ATG my knees went from functional to oh-my-God-why-do-you-hurt-all-the-time.

After taking a month off to recover, I dropped down to no weight on the ATG, started from ground zero, and have had no problems since. I'm going to take Tweaked_Bat's advice and incorporate parallel into my routine. Maybe do 5 sets of 5 with 3 being ATG and 2 being parallel and switch for the next time.

When I started lifting about a year ago I started with quarter squats, because that was how I was always instructed and that's what everyone else was doing. Then months later I thought maybe I should be at least doing the full ROM, and started doing ATG squats at a lesser weight. Probably a bad idea at the time, because as soon as I started ATG my knees went from functional to oh-my-God-why-do-you-hurt-all-the-time.

After taking a month off to recover, I dropped down to no weight on the ATG, started from ground zero, and have had no problems since. I'm going to take Tweaked_Bat's advice and incorporate parallel into my routine. Maybe do 5 sets of 5 with 3 being ATG and 2 being parallel and switch for the next time.

You should be aware that unless you're practiced in both, doing low bar and high bar squats can get you messed up. Low bar technique, especially since you can lift heavier weights, is pretty tricky. No knees sliding forward in the hole is a tough thing to learn. I would have a hard time learning to low bar while doing high bar.

When I started lifting about a year ago I started with quarter squats, because that was how I was always instructed and that's what everyone else was doing. Then months later I thought maybe I should be at least doing the full ROM, and started doing ATG squats at a lesser weight. Probably a bad idea at the time, because as soon as I started ATG my knees went from functional to oh-my-God-why-do-you-hurt-all-the-time.

After taking a month off to recover, I dropped down to no weight on the ATG, started from ground zero, and have had no problems since. I'm going to take Tweaked_Bat's advice and incorporate parallel into my routine. Maybe do 5 sets of 5 with 3 being ATG and 2 being parallel and switch for the next time.

You should be aware that unless you're practiced in both, doing low bar and high bar squats can get you messed up. Low bar technique, especially since you can lift heavier weights, is pretty tricky. No knees sliding forward in the hole is a tough thing to learn. I would have a hard time learning to low bar while doing high bar.

It was a challenge but it felt okay today. I started low bar 10 lbs under my normal high bar weight, did 3 sets of 5, then threw the 10 lbs back on for the 2 high bar sets. I'm glad I dropped the weight because low bar felt like a completely different exercise.

Some scary shit at the gym this morning. Had a man pass out on the bench (unsure how) and the bar dropped down onto his throat. No spotters, no safeties and no one was in that area of the gym to see it happen. Me and a mate rounded the corner to find him trapped under it, unconscious, 80kg sitting square across his throat and his face a fucking terrifying shade of blue. God knows how long he had been like that for. Ripped the bar off him and got him into a recovery position. Weak pulse and it took about 10-15 seconds before he drew a breath, another 3 minutes or so before he got back to a normal colour and was conscious about 5-10 minutes later but he wasn't speaking or walking or anything. He's down at the hospital now getting checked out.

He is a real good dude and I am really fucking hoping he is okay.

The moral of the story is - Use your fucking safeties, people. Or spotters. Just don't bench alone without an escape plan. This could have been a lot worse if we'd been one minute later in finding him.

I avoid benching if there is on-one else in the room. My weight isn't terribly high so when I fail out I can guide it down and keep it on my chest without feeling like I'm gonna die. Even so, having someone else in the room to help get it back off the chest is a god send

Some scary shit at the gym this morning. Had a man pass out on the bench (unsure how) and the bar dropped down onto his throat. No spotters, no safeties and no one was in that area of the gym to see it happen. Me and a mate rounded the corner to find him trapped under it, unconscious, 80kg sitting square across his throat and his face a fucking terrifying shade of blue. God knows how long he had been like that for. Ripped the bar off him and got him into a recovery position. Weak pulse and it took about 10-15 seconds before he drew a breath, another 3 minutes or so before he got back to a normal colour and was conscious about 5-10 minutes later but he wasn't speaking or walking or anything. He's down at the hospital now getting checked out.

He is a real good dude and I am really fucking hoping he is okay.

The moral of the story is - Use your fucking safeties, people. Or spotters. Just don't bench alone without an escape plan. This could have been a lot worse if we'd been one minute later in finding him.

Some scary shit at the gym this morning. Had a man pass out on the bench (unsure how) and the bar dropped down onto his throat. No spotters, no safeties and no one was in that area of the gym to see it happen. Me and a mate rounded the corner to find him trapped under it, unconscious, 80kg sitting square across his throat and his face a fucking terrifying shade of blue. God knows how long he had been like that for. Ripped the bar off him and got him into a recovery position. Weak pulse and it took about 10-15 seconds before he drew a breath, another 3 minutes or so before he got back to a normal colour and was conscious about 5-10 minutes later but he wasn't speaking or walking or anything. He's down at the hospital now getting checked out.

He is a real good dude and I am really fucking hoping he is okay.

The moral of the story is - Use your fucking safeties, people. Or spotters. Just don't bench alone without an escape plan. This could have been a lot worse if we'd been one minute later in finding him.

Rewarding day in the gym for me today. It was really busy, but I just went through my program and every exercise I went to do, there was space free, which is definitely not the norm most saturdays recently.

Got 3x3 chin-ups with 16.25kg on a belt, and got through sets of ten dumbbell rows with 30kg with no issues.
It made me think I should've moved up to 30kg dumbbells earlier, but 27.5kg always seemed so hard in previous weeks.

I have a deload week coming up and I'm not sure if I want it. But I haven't taken one for a while so I guess I should just stick to the program and let the recovery do its good work.

I don't know where he got the scorpions, or how he got them into my mattress.

I thought training that limited ROM of the squat puts pretty bad strain on the patella joint. When should one incorporate quarter squats?

Some say that the Blood Angels are tainted: that they harbour a dark secret. I know this to be true. I have seen the infamous Death Company: wild-eyed and foam-mouthed berserkers who tear their enemies limb from limb, crush skulls with a single blow, snap spines and rip out inner organs. I have seen the Sanguinary Priests: the passing of blood filled chalices from lip to lip, heard their wracking lamentations of Sanguinus's death. I have watched their rituals: mighty warriors daubing their armour in the blood of their foes, heard them crying for vengeance against the enemies of the Emperor.

Ok, gonna lift for the first time since Badger's story scared the crap out of me because most of the time I'm lifting I have no spotters or anyone who would even be aware that I was in trouble until well after the fact.

Sorry I didn't actually mean to imply that someone is not an athlete if they quarter squat. I was just quoting your use of the word athlete. I train around some folks who are serious about their lifting and do it for the purpose of getting better at it, but I wouldn't call them athletes is what I meant, I suppose. In hindsight that was kind of ambiguous.

Ok, gonna lift for the first time since Badger's story scared the crap out of me because most of the time I'm lifting I have no spotters or anyone who would even be aware that I was in trouble until well after the fact.

Found out he recovered fine. A bit of bruising on the throat and was in shock for a while.

I've seen plenty of people get pinned but never seen someone fully pass out under the bar. I am lucky in that I have some perfectly positioned safeties which the bar rests on as soon as I drop the arch out of my back. It's a pretty freakish occurrence but definitely worth thinking through an escape plan.

I thought training that limited ROM of the squat puts pretty bad strain on the patella joint. When should one incorporate quarter squats?

The folk I talk to who squat high usually do it because it mimics more closely their sport-specific movement and the angles they need to produce power from. I've also spoken to a couple of bodybuilders who said that for purely hypertrophy purposes, below parallel wasn't necessary.

I don't personally subscribe to those views, but that's the idea I think.

I'm tempted to add in quarter squats on occasion just to help get used to the feeling of way heavier weight on my shoulders. It feels like there can be a pretty big mental barrier as soon as i lift a heavy feeling barbell off the pins

I thought training that limited ROM of the squat puts pretty bad strain on the patella joint. When should one incorporate quarter squats?

The folk I talk to who squat high usually do it because it mimics more closely their sport-specific movement and the angles they need to produce power from. I've also spoken to a couple of bodybuilders who said that for purely hypertrophy purposes, below parallel wasn't necessary.

I don't personally subscribe to those views, but that's the idea I think.

I've heard the bodybuilding thing too. I've noticed that Ronnie Coleman stops his squats high in a bunch of his vids but he's also a fucking monster so I guess he's figured out what works for him.

I might've posted about this issue before, but it would've been a loooong time ago.

When I try to work out my chest, usually any sort of bench, sometimes flies, etc., or if I would try shoulder stuff (lateral raises, etc, which I completely gave up on years ago) I get pain roughly in my AC joint area. If I work out consistently, it starts to happen when I do pretty much anything, and also lingers randomly in the back of my shoulder (feels like its probably in that top bone in your upper back, maybe my scapula?) It started in my right shoulder about 5 or 6 years ago, and has begun to happen in my left shoulder too. I have had limited range in my right shoulder for years, for example I can't even really do an upright row motion, let alone with any weight, while my left is still pretty normal. They crack constantly, and feel like they're popping a little bit during some workout motions. I think 4 years ago or so I got an MRI on it, the guy said there was nothing enough wrong that I needed surgery but that something was a little bit wacky with my AC joint, and I underwent physical therapy. I've done at least 2 or 3 separate sequences of PT on it, including once after getting a cortisone shot in the right shoulder. When it first started, I took at least a year off from lifting, and in the years since then I've taken breaks of between 1 to 6 months several other times. No amount of rest or PT seems to help it, it'll subside (mostly) but acts back up again as soon as I start working out again. I'm making another appointment with a shoulder specialist tomorrow, but has anyone had ANY similar experience with shoulder issues. This shit is really starting to bother me, since working out is something I really, really enjoy and get depressed when I can't for a long period of time, watch my gains disappear for the hundredth time, and end up eating like shit and falling out of shape.